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Why Not To Do A Startup

mattmaroon.com

1–10 of 88 posts

Re: Why Not To Do A Startup

#4
this is a more articulate version of what i've been saying. do a startup if it will make you happy. Some people are only truly happy when they're challenged as thoroughly as only running your own business can be. But don't just assume it's for you based on how cool it seems.

Re: Why Not To Do A Startup

#5
post #2

My apologies to JRM's karma. I'd give you some points if I could.

bahaha. If I could somehow give you +10 for that comment I would.

You could mod up 10 of my other comments, but Paul Graham would have to remove your voting rights for abusing the system.

I think allowing arbitrary karma transfer on here would be an interesting experiment in reputational economies.

Re: Why Not To Do A Startup

#7
Nice article.

If you can answer the question "What you would like to do with your life?", the macro decisions, then decisions such as doing a startup or not, where to buy a house, etc. seem pale in comparison.

Re: Why Not To Do A Startup

#8
While I was reading this, I kept making a mental translation of the word "startup" into "grad school" (especially the bit about being 30 and single, due to the seven previous years of 80-hour weeks). It held together just as well.

I'm no defender of the blind optimism that goes along with the startup universe, but there are certainly less lucrative ways to waste the best years of your life.

Re: Why Not To Do A Startup

#9
Definitely a lot of truth in this article, but Matt barely acknowledges the advantages to doing startups. I also think that he's way too pessimistic about things like maintaining friendships and finding things to do after cashing out -- both of those are probably a lot easier than he describes.

Re: Why Not To Do A Startup

#10
I enjoyed the article.

I have to say, though, and this is totally unrelated to the article itself, that this is one of those pieces where I've thought--hey, I'd like to get in touch with this guy--and yet there's no way to do it directly. I may be the only one who still prefers to communicate specifically with one person directly from time to time, rather than via public comments, blog posts, walls, and the like, but I do. And there's no e-mail address or general contact information I could find on the site, no WHOIS information, no information in the Y Combinator profile on this board, etc. There's probably information somewhere on Facebook, but I can't access Facebook, and even if I could, I'm probably not in the right network to see it.

Oh, well! Still a good article.

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